The 2025 Volkswagen Taos shouldn’t be an thrilling automobile. If you mat the fuel pedal, pull again on the shifter and grip the steering wheel, you aren’t crammed with a deep sense that this compact crossover is supposed to be a bastion of driving enjoyment. As an alternative, you’re met with middling acceleration, a silky clean transmission and a steering system so mild you possibly can virtually hear it telling you to calm the fuck down. This may make it sound like I’m not a fan of the Taos, however you’d be mistaken.
VW’s up to date tiny crossover builds upon a powerful basis the Taos had when it first got here out in 2020. What it lacks in driving dynamics and general pleasure, it greater than makes up for in good and easy-to-use expertise, handsome-enough styling, loads of intelligent packaging and strong however uninspiring powertrain choices. The Taos gained’t shock you if you get behind the wheel, however that was by no means the purpose anyway.
Full Disclosure: Volkswagen flew me all the way down to San Antonio, Texas, fed me and put me up in a really good lodge all so I might drive the 2025 Taos.
Compact crossovers like the Taos, Chevy Trax, Hyundai Kona and Mazda CX-30 are sizzling proper now, so it is smart that Volkswagen would attempt to go the additional mile when updating its ‘lil SUV for 2025 to try to set it other than some very stiff competitors. Volkswagen put some huge cash and energy into making the Taos really feel extra premium by upgrading the facility numbers, transmission, inside supplies, styling and including some options you don’t even see on each luxurious automotive.
The inside of the 2025 Taos looks like a nicer, extra premium place to spend your time due to a number of actually good tech options and higher supplies. A type of materials highlights is the addition of a reasonably convincing leatherette on the door playing cards rather than onerous plastic. It’s little particulars like that that I can admire. There are few issues I hate greater than onerous plastic in high-touch areas. Whereas the very comfortable seats stay unchanged for 2025, the Taos does acquire a brand new blue inside possibility. How nice is that? Sadly, I didn’t get an opportunity to test these out in individual, however blue interiors rock.
General, the inside could be very effectively specified by an aggressively Volkswagen approach. What I imply by that’s it’s the identical fundamental inside structure Volkswagen has been working with throughout its portfolio for over a decade at this level. All the pieces could be very logically positioned; you’re by no means going to must hunt for a button or management whether or not it’s on the dashboard or within the infotainment system. The eight-inch touchscreen works very effectively, however I do want it was a bit greater. Eight inches simply isn’t sufficient today. Ask your girlfriend.
The three-stage (!!!) heated steering wheel feels very good to grip, as does the Tiptronic shifter. My solely gripe is with the haptic contact buttons used to regulate the local weather management system. I admire they’re nonetheless bodily buttons that aren’t tied to a display screen, however rattling they’re onerous to function at velocity. House can also be plentiful. Volkswagen says the front-wheel-drive Taos has 27.9 cubic toes of cargo room behind the rear seats, and there’s greater than sufficient rear seat room for my 6-foot-1 body to take a seat behind my driving place. That’s a move should you ask me.
On the skin, Volkswagen did a really good nip-tuck job to the Taos, making it look only a bit sharper with out getting too aggressive. It beneficial properties the corporate-ish entrance and rear mild bars and illuminated badges. These mild bars, man. So sizzling proper now. These lighting methods spotlight the tweaks which have been made to the entrance and rear facias general. I hate that it stored the dumbass pretend exhaust ideas, however that’s a minor sin I’m prepared to forgive. Not a lot else has modified. There are a number of new, good-looking wheel choices to select from, and a few new colours. I can’t actually complain. It appears to be like like a Volkswagen Taos. What had been you anticipating?
One other huge change for the Taos going into 2025 is that VW dropped the seven-speed DSG transmission it employed in all-wheel-drive fashions. As an alternative, all 4Motion Taoses will get the identical eight-speed automated that was present in FWD fashions. Volkswagen apparently did this as a result of it was bored with folks complaining that their vehicles felt damaged since they weren’t used to DSGs. Bunch of infants. Whereas it’s unhappy to see a dual-clutch transmission chunk the mud, this eight-speed is admittedly fairly good. Shifts up and down are buttery clean to the purpose you barely even discover them. Gasoline mileage additionally goes up with the addition of an eighth gear, and who doesn’t love that?
That mileage bonus comes regardless of the very fact the Taos now has extra horsepower for 2025. Volkswagen reworked among the internals of its turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-4 motor to offer it a rip-roaring 178 horsepower. That’s up from the 158 horsepower of the earlier automotive. Torque stays the identical at 184 lb-ft. It’s sufficient.
I suppose I ought to at the very least contact on how the 2025 Taos drives for all of the Taos-pilled pervs on the market. Initially, what the hell is mistaken with you? Second of all, it’s fantastic. It’s not a observe star, and also you finest imagine it isn’t making an attempt to be. That 1.5-liter turbo motor does a great job of getting you off the road pretty rapidly. Volkswagen says 4Motion Taoses will mosey as much as 60 in 7.4 seconds; that goes up a tick for front-wheel-drive vehicles to 7.5 seconds. Tip-in is definitely form of aggressive. Within the FWD Taos it wasn’t unusual to chirp the tires below hard-ish acceleration. A lot of the energy is reserved for the upper components of the rev vary, so passing on the freeway means a number of gears are going to be dropped to get into the facility band. Fortunately, the engine doesn’t make that a lot noise and the transmission is extraordinarily clean, so it’s not an excessive amount of of a chore.
There are a number of drive modes to select from together with Sport, Regular, Financial system and a Customized mode, together with a number of different off-road modes on 4Motion vehicles (FWD are caught with a single default mode, however you possibly can shift the transmission into Sport). You gained’t really feel an excessive amount of change with the drivetrain, apart from if you go into Eco mode when it turns into an absolute canine, and that’s form of the purpose. It very a lot discourages onerous acceleration, and that’s how the Taos will get EPA-estimated 28 mpg metropolis, 36 mpg freeway and 31 mpg mixed rankings. 4Motion vehicles take a little bit of successful, getting 25/33/28, in response to VW.
The Taos’ steering is nearly as vanilla as its powertrain. There’s little or no really feel, not that any Taos purchaser needs or wants a particularly communicative digital steering system. There’s additionally some play within the steering wheel on-center, however once more, who the fuck cares? It’s very mild — you possibly can just about drive it with one finger — and that’s precisely what Taosheads need. It goes round corners with little or no fuss if you’re driving onerous. After all, the Taos pushes should you overcook it a bit, simply to remind you that it could prefer it should you relaxed for one goddamn second.
An actual spotlight of the Taos’ driving dynamics is its suspension. Not as a result of it’s sporty or something like that, however as a result of it’s extraordinarily comfy and way more refined than its $26,420 base worth would have you ever imagine. The entrance strut and rear multilink suspension (FWD Taoses get a torsion beam) preserve complete composure over even the roughest of pavements Texas needed to throw at it. Don’t get me mistaken, it’s not a Rolls-Royce or something, but it surely ain’t too shabby, both. Yeah, it rolls or no matter within the corners, however after all it does. That simply means it’s all of the extra comfortable if you’re cruising down a shitty freeway floor. I can also’t fault its ambient quantity. For what we’re working with right here, the Taos is pretty quiet on the freeway. There’s some noise intrusion, that is an financial system automotive in spite of everything, but it surely might be an entire lot worse.
If this all sounds interesting to you, you’re in luck. The 2025 Taos is already displaying up on supplier heaps. To additional your fortunate streak, it isn’t too costly both. There are 4 fashions to select from, with the most affordable S beginning at $26,420 together with $1,425 for vacation spot. Then you definitely’ve received the SE ($29,320), the SE Black ($31,570) and the top-end SEL ($36,120). All however the SEL get commonplace FWD, with 4Motion including $1,700 to the worth, and I promise you don’t want it. Spend a number of hundred bucks on winter tires, and also you’ll be happier, get higher fuel mileage and add 5 cubic toes of area to your trunk.
It doesn’t matter what trim degree you go for, all Taos fashions get the identical motor and transmission, projector beam headlights, the very cute mild bar on the back and front, keyless begin, an eight-inch infotainment display screen and VW’s IQ Drive suite of driver help tech. The upper up you go within the vary, you begin including issues like greater wheels, a ten.25-inch gauge cluster display screen, ambient lighting, an enormous panoramic sunroof in addition to heated and ventilated seats. That’s actually not too shabby.
Hear, like so many automobiles on sale at present, the Taos isn’t for folks such as you and me. The common Taos purchaser doesn’t care about off-the-line acceleration, mid-corner dynamics or how briskly their automotive can lap a racetrack. They need fundamental transportation with sufficient niceties to get you thru the day with out having a nervous breakdown. What extra can you actually ask for? The Taos supply actually zero surprises, and that’s a promise, not a menace. It is a automobile made merely for getting from point-A to point-B with out being annoying, and it does a rattling good job of that.
